THECAT'SPAW

long ,long ago there lived two animals_

_a cat and a monkey. one day the monkey

found some chestnuts in a fire. He wanted

very much to eat them, but was afraid of burning his hand .so he took the cat to the fire and said:"Ah,How good those chesnuts smell!

cat,my dear friend .your paws are made just like man's hands.you are the only one who can pull the nuts from the fire.Why don't you try it?"

the cat was flattered by the monkey's

praise. She was willing to do anything for

him. so she put out her paw and began

to pull the chestnuts out of the fire .She

burned her paw each time she pulled a nut out.

"How fine it is to have hands like a man!" said the monkey."Try to get some more .we'll share them."

So the cat went on pulling more and more chestnuts out of the fire.But when at last she turned for her share of the nuts,she found that the monkey had eaten them all.

this is how the term "cat's paw" has come into use.

paw爪子 chestnut栗子 nut坚果

flatter阿谀，奉承，使满意 willing心甘情愿的 share分享，一份 term词，用语，字眼

译文：

很久以前，有两只住在一起的动物___一只猫和一只猴子。一天，猴子在一堆火里发现了一些栗子。他非常想吃，但是他怕烧伤他的手不敢取。他就把猫带到火跟前对她说“呀，这些栗子闻起来真香啊！猫猫，我亲爱的朋友，你的爪子跟人的手一模一样。你是唯一能从火里取出栗子的人。为什么不试一试呢？”

猫猫被猴子奉承的非常高兴，她心甘情愿想为猴子做任何事情。所以，她伸出爪子开始从火堆中往外取栗子，每取一次被火烧伤一次。

“有一双像人的手多好啊！”猴子说。“多取些出来，我俩分了（吃）。”

猫猫从火中取出的栗子越来越多。但是，最后当猫猫想分摊栗子的时候，她发现取出的栗子被猴子吃完了。

这就是“猫爪子”（被利用的人）这一说法的来历。